Four doves broke free from the circle of hundreds of mourners, each clinging to someone they love, as the massive group huddled around Autumn Pasquale's silver casket.

The doves, representing the 12-year-old's spirit and her family's spirituality, flew East together and disappeared into the gray sky, sparking muffled weeping that pierced the silence.

Then, burial crews cranked the casket into an above-ground tomb at Clayton's Cedar Green Cemetery where the seventh grader will rest in the shadow of neighboring Clayton Middle School.

After accepting thousands of hugs during funeral services Saturday morning, Jennifer Cornwell sat watching crews prepare the tomb with family members' hands on her shoulders. Sunglasses couldn't hide her tears.

"I love you, Autumn! I love you!" the middle schooler's father Anthony Pasquale pushed out, holding a crumpled tissue to his face as he sobbed over his daughter, whose remains were found by police Tuesday following a massive days-long search when she went missing last week.

The late afternoon burial Saturday was a testament to the finality of Autumn's death.

But inside Our Lady of Lourdes Church hours before - where Cornwell felt like her own "body double" - Msgr. Michael Mannion celebrated the legacy of Autumn's 12 years of life.

"Why did she live?" Mannion asked the quiet crowd of hundreds at the 2:30 p.m. Catholic funeral service, which was preceded by a viewing that drew thousands to the Glassboro church to pay last respects.

Every person, pew by pew, could answer that question differently, Mannion said, himself believing that Autumn's life taught "about a fiery spirit."

Autumn was a tom boy "with the best of them," and a princess when she dressed up, he said.

"This is a girl who was cute and loving and pretty, but a girl who also says, 'don't mess with me,'" he added, welcoming a laugh from packed pews, which confirmed Autumn's personality. "This is a girl with a kind heart, who touched everyone she met. I'm told that she was wiser than her years."

And, he said, she "rode her bike like the wind, and had a spirit to match."

One week ago, Autumn pedaled off as usual on her beloved white BMX bike, which has become a chilling image of the borough's tragedy.

Saturday, a flowered replica of the bicycle became a symbol of what she loved, along with soccer balls made of carnations that flanked the casket at the foot of the altar.

Her soccer team, the Clayton Comets, wore their team jerseys as a sign of respect for Autumn - #14.

Classmates, teachers and others who waited for nearly an hour in lines that wrapped the church, wore navy blue shirts with a gold emblem that read, "Autumn Pasquale, forever in our hearts." Her parents and siblings donned buttons with Autumn's picture and birth date.

"If we don't somehow hold on to her spirit of life and love, we'll get swallowed in the grief and the pain," Mannion said. "Pain that is not transformed is transmitted."

The pain of loss is what makes some - particularly children, he said - wonder what's next?

"I worked with kids for a lot of years. They leave a service like this saying, what's next, what do we do?," Mannion said. "When you see someone is hurting, sitting alone at lunch, or needing to learn how to ride a bike, well, maybe that's the time to 'do an Autumn.'"

Sit with them, or teach them to ride that bike, he said.

"Don't be afraid to hug the family, and say 'how are you doing?'" Mannion added. "And share a funny story about the girl who rode like the wind."